1 Foolproof Way To Become a Better Writer

I am typing slowly because some of you are going to benefit from reading this post…repeatedly.

And yes I said that with an extra dose of sarcasm and snark.

If you take offense at that you should leave now and never come back, but remember if you do you will miss out on learning the many other secrets that will be revealed in a coming ebook.

So here is 1 Foolproof way to become a better writer. Are you ready for it? Are you sure? It is mind blowing.

Stop Trying To Reinvent The Wheel!

Stop trying to remarkable. Stop trying to be epic. Stop trying to be unique, interesting and amazing. Stop worrying about whether you have anything of value to say or share and just write.

It is not complicated, writing that is. There is a beginning, a middle and an end. You don’t need to construct a post that reads like the Declaration of Independence, War and Peace or Moby Dick.

Just write. Put pen to paper, finger to keyboard and let the words flow out of you. Stop worrying about who is going to read your posts. Stop hoping that you are going to be discovered and just write.

Stop letting that little voice in your head say that maybe your shit does stink and that no one is going to like, listen or read. The beauty of this big, beautiful world is that there will always be someone who likes you and what you share. There will always be someone who can relate to what you write.

Really. It is true. I know because I feel it, felt it, did it and done it.

Yes, I know that “done it” doesn’t sound right but I don’t care. Ma and Pa Steiner told me that when I was a grown up I would be allowed to break the rules. Well, I don’t know if I am a grown up but I am breaking the rules and it feels good.

Paralysis of Analysis

Many of us have a tendency to over think what we are doing. I guarantee that I am among the most prolific bloggers you will ever meet. When I am given blocks of uninterrupted time I can produce multiple posts a day, write thousands upon thousands of words and do it with little effort.

Not only that but I can do it with relatively few errors.

The primary reason I can do it is because I have spent hours practicing my craft. I have taught myself how to produce under virtually any situation.

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t hear voices or little whispers that question my skill and my content. And I am not talking about you cranky motherfuckers who write me nasty letters because you trolls will never be happy with me.

No, I don’t need to swear but yes I did. Sometimes it feels good. Writing should feel good.

That is part of why you need to stop trying to reinvent the wheel because you do nothing but shackle your creativity and apply mental handcuffs. Save the cuffs for the bedroom and or your shrink and just write.

When you do that good things happen.

Just write. Don’t worry. Just write.

But What About The Reader

I am not suggesting that you ignore your readers or say that all writing advice is useless. Jayme has a post about writing that I really like, go read it. Write about things that you love, like, hate or are concerned about.

Those four posts are some of the most popular I have written and have generated a tremendous amount of feedback. Some of that has come via comments or pageviews, but the most has come via email. Emails that people wrote in which they shared their story and or remarked about what they liked about it.

That is because I just wrote from the heart. I didn’t try to be unique. I just wrote. You can do that too. You don’t need to use all of the blog tricks we read and or talk about here and elsewhere.

Just write. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel.

About Me/About You

Writing is about me and it is about you. I’ll let you decide which comes first. But I’ll also mention that there is a page in our blogs that is really important. It is the “About Me” page. It deserves it is own post so I am going to give it one, but not before I mention it here.

When you can identify what needs to be in your “about me” page writing becomes easier.

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Comments

Thanks for your humor and advice. I agree that being ourselves-whether in writing or daily activities-is the very best. Also, you said there will always be someone who will like you and what you share. I totally agree with that and I will also add that most importantly we have to like ourselves. We can be our worst enemies. So if I like myself and I have the confidence in who I am then what can stop me? So yes, we be ourselves, we like ourselves, and we live and share with our hearts.

I truly appreciate how straightforward you are. To some it might sound harsh, but I see it as you believing in other’s talent and wanting them to believe as well. Stop trying to change the world in 1000 words and write from your heart. Thanks.

Thank you. It is a big world with a very big pie that we can all take pieces of. Some people will love our words and some will hate them. But unless we put pen to paper we will never figure out who they are.

Frack. Can you put the comment box like higher? My finger went to sleep scrolling the track pad to get down here and leave my measly comment. I almost stopped along the way to find a rest area.

Some peeps aren’t as laissez-faire as you are; some peeps really care about their influence and will only write what’s tres importante. Me? I’m all for the unique and non-echo chamber stuff, too. ‘Cuz, we’re all sure getting a dose of repetition out there; kinda hard not to when everyone wants a piece of the pie.

So, I say, change it up; go elsewhere for fodder and not your peers’ blogs. If you read the morning national news or pick up a trade pub, there’s a ton of stuff in there that no one is writing about on the ‘sphere.

So, in the midst of all this snark, I’ll get serious for one sec (thanks for the link love; I had no idea when I came over from my Google+ Community called Bloggers Unite!) — stop reading others’ blogs; stop watching Twitter streams for your content fodder. You’re amplifying the echo chamber.

So much of this is subjective. We know from experience that some of the posts that are supposed to be “influential” are filled with nothing but fluff and lauded by noobs who don’t know better.

That is all tied into why we should wander outside of our circles and visit other people. Doesn’t have to happen every time you go online but it should be a regular feature. It is part of what helps us stay fresh and avoid that echo chamber.

The paralysis of analysis has made it so many of my writing projects withered on the vine.

Incidentally, what I feel is my best writing is a little something I write for me whenever I feel like it, but is so personal as to be unpublishable. Not because of its honesty — it’s just that it deals with things I don’t want out in the open. Too private. Guess the challenge there is to apply that same honesty to the pieces I DO want to publish.

Writing without self-censorship has truly gotten me farther than I expected. So there’s that, even if I won’t air my “confessions.” Yeah, I have an actual word file titled “confessions,” go figure. 😉

@StartYourNovel It is easy to get caught up in thinking about our projects. I have done it more than once.

There is merit in writing about those things that aren’t published because they provide insights into ourselves, our thoughts, ideas, feelings and character that we can use to help us on other projects.

It happens that I was just reading William Zinser’s On Writing Well. He essentially says the same thing. Just write. For you. Write with confidence about what you want to write about, and even if it’s a subject your reader may not have been interested in, by your writing they will want to read it. If you write for you.

I am not familiar with Zinser, but it sounds like it is worth checking out. I like the advice you relate there. I think that when we write with confidence and passion it is contagious and it helps make others want to read our words.

Welcome to the blog. The questions you ask really are common and uniform. There are still moments where I ask them. Sometimes I wonder why people read my stories.

Your philosophy works very well for blogging. Unless you are writing solely to doctors/lawyers/engineers there is no reason to compose a post that reads like a tort, submission for a medical journal or specs for building.

But more than anything else, just write and you will find lots of people who enjoy reading your posts.

Nicely stated Jack!
I’m the reason posts like this come to be. I constantly over think and don’t ‘Just Do it’. I’ve wanted to blog for what seems like an eternity but never knew what to write about, if anyone would read it or if what I was writing was any good.

When people ask me for advice, I tell them to apply the K.I.S.S theory. Keep It Simple Stupid. This hypocrite just had an ‘a-ha’ moment.
Thanks for the post Jack!

Being relatively new to the blogosphere, I found this helpful. I soooo appreciated that tone and tenor of the piece too. If you are going to give me advice, i would prefer that you sound like someone I would take it from in \

I understand that. It is hard to take advice from people that you don’t respect or don’t know how to give it out. There is no single way to do this so there are lots of options and opportunities for people to benefit from.

For me, the blogosphere is a channel to connecting me with like-minded people–individuals who share similar stories. It’s a way to offer validation for one’s journey and gain support in this world where we can sometimes feel alone. Just one voice among many, but when there are many, we are heard. If I over-analyze and become paralyzed, the connections weaken. And I have experienced this. Thanks for the post.

I absolutely love this. I started a blog to find a place to sort through some sensitive issues of my own through writing. But then I became caught up in the idea of blogging, the design elements, the Twitter world, the building a community part. I found it easier to write sweet stories than tackle the issues hiding in my heart. Thank you for this post and reminding me to write, really write, from my heart.

There are a lot of distractions that can take us on all sorts of wacky paths away from where we started. The question I ask myself is whether those are helping or hurting me. Sometimes that unexpected trip yields big dividends.

Jesus H. Christ you have a shitload of comments. This is my first visit to your blog I think – this was a great post and my favorite point you made was “write what you know.” That is the singlemost important advice you can get as a writer. Another one of my fave pieces of writerly advice comes from Nike: JUST DO IT. You know?
(-:

Great post and advice. We always tend to overcomplicate things. I find that some of my best pieces are the ones that I just spewed onto the page in a flurry of words of phrases and then cleaned up later.

Jack, I am refusing to read what others write prior to writing my post. If I am redundant, forgive me. I just don’t want to quell what I have to say by worrying about it others have already said it. Here is what I want to say.

I think you crawled into my head and overheard the conversation I was having with myself as I drove home from work this evening. I started my blog ages ago as a private page for me. I had two readers then: me and a man who encouraged me to start it. Back then, I just wrote. Spewed what was running through my mind. And then other folks started to read and lately, I have found myself stifled by that knowledge.

There are a lot of words racing around my head, begging to be given life in the outside world. But I have been hushing them, for worry of how they will appear once out. Thanks for the reminder to shut up and get out of the way.

When I first started blogging, my only goal was to have an outlet to write. It didn’t take long before I got caught up in the “to-do” list for bloggers that seems to permeate the web. Social networking, trolling for readers, branding….I got so caught up in all the detritus that I forgot the point. Now I’m back to writing the kind of posts that I want to write—whether they’re funny or not, they’re 100% me. I appreciate your reminder and think it great advice for any writer, blogger or not.

It is really easy to get caught up in all of the craziness that surrounds this wacky writing world we call the blogosphere. I am obviously a big fan of the authentic blog post- write for yourself and worry about everyone else later.

If we followed the “feel good” method of more of our lives, we would get a hell of a lot more accomplished.

It’s kinda like the old Nike slogan…”Just do it!”

The other day, i watched a short vid by Danielle LaPorte where she said “Do what you say you’re going to do”. She repeated it about 3 times. It was powerful in it’s simplicity. Most of the time we just need to do what we know (or say we are going) to do.

Everyone’s trying to be epic/monumental, etc. But the cool thing is that if we would each put that amount of energy into being authentically ourselves, it would be the most “epic” endeavor of all!

You know I agree with you…and it’s really good you’re pushing people to just write. The only thing I’d add is stop comparing yourself to other writers. We’re all different. We’re all unique. We all can write different things. I learned this lesson as a business owner. I thought you had to have a gazillion employees and a big revenue number to be successful. It turns out a gazillion employees costs a lot of money and revenue is great if it translates to a big profit number. Every once in a while I look at one of my peers and think, “I should be at that level.” But then I have to remind myself I was at that level and we were losing money. A lot of it.

The same goes for writing. Just because you perceive someone to be a better writer than you doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.

This is a case of great minds think alike. I wrote this post prior to reading the one you wrote. I like that one too.

It is hard not to compare ourselves to others. I think ego and human nature impact that a lot. I readily admit that sometimes I look at other bloggers and grow irritated because they appear to have more success than I do.

But as you mention there are lots of variables and we don’t always realize how much our work is valued by others.

Ultimately I come back to the same places in which I ask simple questions like what is my goal and will my current efforts support that. If so then all is good and if not, well time to make a change.

This is an amazing article. I saw a headline and I thought to myself: “If this guy says to just write” he hits the nail in the right spot.

I have a problem of inner critic. Less and less of that problem I face on daily basis, because I consistently write, daily. 1000 words, no more no less. It’s a part of my daily routine. One of the most important aspects of it.

I love wriitng, I love expressing myself in written form. I have been doing it since 2001. I still keep journal of sorts. It’s written for me, so I don’t forget. I started blogging back in 2006. It was a way to keep my private journal away from my mother. Where she couldn’t find it.

But other people did find it. And they listened to my story. I was anonymous and I had no idea what SEO and optimization meant. We didn’t even have Facebook back than. It was all in the blogs, comments.

I didn’t leave comments. I didn’t care much about other people. I was just expressing myself. I didn’t even have the audience that I wanted to attract. I just wanted to express myself.

Back than I learned a lesson in blogging that I find meaningful to this very day. I have seen myself transforming my blogging. I have been reading other bloggers non stop. I have been consistently hanging out on Probloggers of the world and sinking in their advice, but what eventually happened that I developed inner critic.

Once I wanted to create blogging my profession, it didn’t work out. I started caring about others people approval way to much, and that’s where it all crashed.

Now I am care free. I say what I feel and how I feel. If you don’t like me, blow me. There are indeed tons of other people who will agree with you.

Thank you for leaving a comment on my guest post at Smart Boy Design. It meant. Hope to see you back on Alpha Efficiency!

Hi Jack,
This is one of the best advices I’ve read in a very long time. I remember your post, a few days ago, about that you didn’t feel like writing, but you still wrote. That’s what it’s about. The more we write, the better writers we become.

I want to relate what you said to a world famous artist.

I read a story about Picasso, and that he had created more than 50000 works of arts. That’s just amazing, and almost unbelievable… but think of it, if that’s true, how many works of arts from this world famous artist do you know? Well, probably not more than 10

Some pretty sane advice here. From you that is. Writing can be hard sometimes. Basically I write two kinds of blog posts on my blog. Technical ones and ‘random thoughts’ ones. Overall I find it harder to write the technical stuff, because I tend to be over-precise and over-investigating on those subjects.
The random thoughts require almost no thinking. They just flow out the keyboard in a more natural way.
One trick I sometimes use is pretending to write ‘for’ a certain person. Just like you’re talking to them in person. Sometimes that has lead to me throwing out some posts because they turned out to be well… yannow…
Good advice, Jack!

Hey Jack,
Well said! But I wanna “construct a post that reads like the Declaration of Independence, War and Peace or Moby Dick.” Only shorter! 😉
I bet writing daily cleanses all that out of you! You’re talking about Gladwell’s 10,000 hours. Have you surpassed them by now?
Love the “Paralysis of analysis”
Lori

I don’t know if I can say that I feel cleansed of the desire or need. Sometimes I feel like I have gotten it out. Sometimes I feel like I have written something meaningful, special and important.

But most of the time I feel like I am just beginning to understand how to do it. Let’s see, there are 8,760 hours in a year and I have been blogging for 8 years now. What’s that work out to be around 70,000 and change.

Of course I haven’t done it for 8 hours a day, every day. But for kicks lets say that it averaged out to 2 hours a day, every day. That works out to around 5800 hours or so, which clearly leaves me short.

However, it doesn’t take into account the years of writing that I put in prior to becoming a blogger so I suppose it is fair to say that those would push me over the top.

Never wrote it down or thought about it like this before, but kind of funny to realize that I hit the mark.

Yeah – you’re over the top 😉 Don’t you wish you’d kept a log of all those hours!!?? If only someone told us what we were shooting for! I’m going to have to settle for 10,000 days. How many years is that?

I’m always trying to do everything you mentioned. I do think it’s important to bring value if you’re treating it like a business though (so, I’ll continue to focus on that), but when it comes to sitting down and writing day in and day out, just sitting down and “doing” is good medicine. Some of my favorite posts just kinda, sorta happened that way.

You, Sir are a prolific blogger, so I’ll take your words of advice. I have been easing up on myself lately and that has resulted in more productive writing.

I approach my “professional” writing with a more critical eye than I do this stuff. This is me screwing around, but then again it is not.

Unless the specs require a different voice everything I write comes from the same place.

It is not always easy. I really am exceptionally hard on myself. I dislike quite a bit of what I write. I look at other bloggers and wonder why I am not as smooth as they are or why I missed making the point/sharing the insight they did.

So I focus on trying to silence the voices. Besides it is a lot more fun to break the rules.

Great post Jack! I am struggling with consistency and motivation. The lack of motivation is funny too because I actually really enjoy blogging and all the friends I’ve been making so far. It could also be because I don’t have a lot of confidence in what I’m putting out there.

I always feel like the content isn’t up to par with the other people who’s sites I frequent. I guess in the end, it really doesn’t as long as I’m good with it.

One of the best things you can do is stop wondering whether people will like it, relate to it or even read it. Just write.

There will always be someone else who does it better than you do it. I always find writers I think are better than myself. I always look at my work and think I could have found a smarter/better/more clever way to write/say it.

Acknowledge that and just write anyway. Some people love Stephen King and others hate him. You will never be universally loved nor hated.

That’s the reason that so many like us manage to write daily, though I have yet to sit and write blog posts daily

But yes, I catch up with my writing projects and other tasks, though do make sure to write daily! I think nothing else can make you better – other than writing every single day.

You are so right by saying that practice is what mnakes you perfect and that’s the reason you are able to cover so much within no time now. You have achieved a great deal – and the best part is that you are able to pen your thoughts in your own style and way that connects with the readers.

Couldn’t have said it better Jack! This not school anymore, where we were forced to write about a specific topic and get it done by a specific time (at least its not like that for me). I started my blog so that I could write what I wanted and how much I wanted and when. I do set aside times to write, but usually words just come out whenever they want and I jot them down where ever I am. And I love it. If you are passionate about the thing you are saying the ideas and the words just keep coming.

Important post, Jack. I’ve got drafts that have sat around for months simply because I think they need more tweaking. That they’re not good enough. How much more prolific could I be if I just wrote, spent a few minutes on the edit, and then hit “publish”?

Yes, just writing and publishing quickly may lead to some lesser quality posts, but it may also lead to something great. And if it doesn’t, who cares? Only 8 people are reading anyway. It’s my opinion that’s most important. With the blog being mainly a recap of my thoughts and life experiences, a quicker process leads to more memories captured.

Thanks, JackB…Many of us are not professional bloggers – it might be a way to journal or to connect with others who are in the same boat, someone who does not live in our house and is tired if hearing our rants. I think one of the most important things to keep in mind is simple: if the topic doesn’t mean anything to you, don’t bother writing about it because your lack of interest will show. (That, and for pete’s sake, use spell check if you aren’t a good speller.)

It is easy to do. I wrote and rewrote several thousand words of fiction but never published it because I got shpilkes over whether it was believable.

I kept staring at it, wondering if it sounded like a man trying to write like a woman. Finally I said screw it and published it. There is much to be said for trying to write something good, something solid and something memorable.

But if we never get around to publishing/producing then what is the point.

Jack thank you for the words of encouragement. I struggle terribly with writing…I hope that its because i’m a newbie and it will will get better with time. I am now going to browse some of your other posts to see what else I can learn.

Writing reminds me of walking. When you first learn how to walk you fall down constantly but you keep picking yourself up so that you can do it again.

Writing isn’t much different. You punch and poke away at the keyboard and slowly you start to figure out how to make the keys sing your song.

But it takes time and practice to do that. The problem is that many people don’t give themselves time. They don’t remember that we aren’t born walking or that you need to learn how to walk before you can run.

Dude. The link love is lovely, and I’m honored you were inspired by my post today to write this. It’s a kick in the pants for more peeps than I know, and I hope it resonates with everyone here and coming.

When @SkyPulseMedia, that’s Howie the Alien, scored the first comment today, he said we’re alike, we shoot from the hip when we write. You do, too. That’s a sign of confidence, I do believe; when you post an opinion and never worry how it reads until the comments come through to let you know.

And, you take them or leave them; I take them, you leave them. #ThatIsAll

We find more ways to shackle ourselves, our thoughts and our creativity than we need to. I am sick of it. I am doing my best to just eliminate that crap. I like watching the crazy misfits we run with shoot from the hip.

Call down the thunder and let the lightning fly- makes life much more fun and far more interesting.

you’re damn right i bloody overthink things. i seek out perfection too. makes me waste a lot of time thinking and not doing. not when it comes to writing, lord knows my writing is know where near perfect, but when it comes to personal projects that could make or break me, i overthink. great post Jack. as always

We should chase excellence and seek perfection but not at the cost of not producing content. Lord knows that I have found a million different ways to trip myself up, but I find myself feeling more satisfied and happier when I produce than when I worry about what could go wrong.